Shadowing Practice: 老闆突然問我「Any thoughts 」，我腦子瞬間一片空白｜Real Life Office English - Learn English Speaking with Video
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195 sentences
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Any thoughts, Emily?
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Four words.
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That was all it took to make every English word I had ever learned disappear from my brain.
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It happened during a Monday morning team meeting.
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There were eight of us sitting around a conference table.
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My manager, Sarah, was walking us through a new plan for one of our biggest clients.
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I had been at the company for about seven months, long enough to understand what was going on, but not long enough to feel completely comfortable speaking in meetings.
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Usually, I listened.
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I took notes.
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I nodded at the right moments.
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And if someone asked a general question, I waited to see if someone more senior would answer first.
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It was a system.
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And honestly, it worked pretty well.
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Until that Monday.
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Sarah had just finished explaining the new client strategy.
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She clicked to the final slide.
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So that's the direction we're thinking of taking, she said.
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Then she looked around the table.
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What do you guys think?
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A few people glanced at their laptops one person took a sip of coffee.
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Nobody answered right away.
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I looked down at my notes.
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I had thoughts.
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Actually, I had several.
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I wasn't sure about the timeline.
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I thought one part of the plan might confuse the client.
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And I had noticed that we were making an assumption about customer behavior that wasn't supported by the data we had.
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But I didn't say anything.
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I was still trying to turn all of that into one clean English sentence.
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Then Sarah looked directly at me.
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Any thoughts, Emily?
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My brain stopped.
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Completely.
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I knew every word in the question.
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Any.
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Thoughts.
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Very easy English.
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A beginner could understand it.
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But suddenly understand it.
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But suddenly understanding English and speaking English felt like two completely different skills.
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Everyone turned toward me.
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I looked at Sarah.
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Then at the slide.
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Then back at Sarah.
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My brain started throwing random sentences at me.
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I have some thoughts.
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No. Too strange.
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I think maybe there is something saying, something what?
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Something what?
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I don't know.
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Absolutely not.
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Three seconds passed.
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Maybe four?
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It felt like thirty.
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Finally, I smiled and said, um, no. I think it looks good.
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Sarah nodded.
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Okay, and moved on.
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That should have been the end of it.
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But for the rest of the meeting, I was annoyed with myself because the truth was I did have thoughts.
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I just hadn't been ready to package them into perfect English in three seconds.
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After the meeting, I went back to my desk.
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My co-worker Daniel stopped beside me.
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You got quiet in there, he said.
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I laughed.
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I completely froze.
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Because Sarah asked what you thought.
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Yes.
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Daniel looked confused.
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But you had an opinion, right?
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I had like five opinions.
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He laughed.
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So why did you say you didn't?
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Good question.
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I leaned back in my chair.
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Because when she looked at me, I suddenly felt like I needed to say something really smart.
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Daniel smiled.
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You don't.
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That sentence stayed with me.
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You don't.
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He pulled over a chair and sat down.
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When someone says any thoughts?
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In a meeting, they're not asking you to give a TED talk.
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I laughed.
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It feels like they are.
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They're usually just opening the door.
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That made sense.
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Then he said something even more useful.
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You also don't have to start with your final answer.
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I looked at him.
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What do you mean?
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You can buy yourself a few seconds.
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How?
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He thought for a moment.
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You could say, my first reaction is, then he added, or one thing that stood out to me was, I wrote those down.
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He continued.
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If you're still thinking, say, I haven't fully thought it through yet, but.
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I looked at him.
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You can actually say that? Of course.
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That doesn't make you sound unprepared.
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No, it makes you sound like a human being.
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Fair point.
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I looked back at my notes from the meeting.
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There was one question I had really wanted to ask.
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The proposed timeline gave the client only two weeks to review everything.
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I thought that might be too aggressive.
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Daniel pointed at my notebook.
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What would you have said if Sarah hadn't put you on the spot?
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I thought about it.
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I guess I would have said, the timeline seems a little tight.
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There you go.
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That's it.
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That's it.
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I stared at him.
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I had spent four years studying English.
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Apparently, what I really needed was someone to tell me I was allowed to say one normal sentence.
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A few days later, we had another meeting about the same project.
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This time, Sarah showed us an updated plan.
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I was prepared.
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Maybe a little too prepared.
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Before the meeting, I had written three possible comments in my notebook, not because I planned to read them.
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Just because knowing they were there made me feel better.
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The meeting started.
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We talked about budget, then staffing, then the launch date.
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About 20 minutes in, Sarah pulled up a new slide.
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We're thinking about moving the client review to Thursday, she said.
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Thursday?
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That was even earlier than before.
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Immediately, I had a concern.
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But before I could decide whether to say anything, Sarah looked at the group.
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Any thoughts?
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My body had the exact same reaction.
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Heart faster.
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Shoulders tense.
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Brain suddenly interested in everything except English.
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But this time, I remembered what Daniel had said.
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I didn't need a perfect answer.
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I just needed a place to start.
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So I spoke before I could talk myself out of it.
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One thing that stood out to me was the Thursday deadline.
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Sarah looked at me.
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Yeah?
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Okay.
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I was still alive.
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I continued.
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I haven't fully thought it through yet, but I wonder if that might be a little tight for the client.
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Sarah looked back at the timeline.
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How so?
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This was the part I used to be afraid of.
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A follow-up question.
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But strangely, once I had already started speaking, it was much easier.
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They usually take at least three or four business days to review our first draft, I said.
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If we send it Monday and need feedback by Thursday, I'm not sure that gives them enough time." Sarah nodded slowly.
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That's a fair point.
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Then another coworker jumped in.
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Actually, they were late on the last review, too.
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Someone else said, Could we move the internal deadline earlier instead?
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And suddenly, everyone was discussing it.
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My comment hadn't been brilliant.
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It hadn't changed the future of the company.
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Nobody applauded.
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But it had started a useful conversation.
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Sarah changed the timeline before the meeting ended.
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And something clicked for me.
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For months, I had treated any thoughts like a test.
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I thought there was a correct answer.
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I thought I needed to sound confident.
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Smart.
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Fast.
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Professional.
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But most of the time that wasn't what people were asking for.
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They just wanted my perspective.
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Sometimes my perspective was only, that timeline feels a little tight.
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Sometimes it was.
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One thing that stood out to me was, sometimes I needed a few seconds so I could say, I haven't fully thought it through yet, but, and sometimes I genuinely had nothing useful to add,
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that was okay too.
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A few weeks later, Sarah asked me the same question in another meeting.
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Any thoughts, Emily?
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This time I didn't panic.
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I looked at the slide for a second and said, my first reaction is that option B looks simpler for the customer.
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Then I explained why.
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No racing heart, no completely blank brain, well, almost no racing heart.
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I was still me.
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But I had finally understood something important.
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Sometimes the hardest part of speaking English at work isn't knowing the vocabulary, it's believing that you have to sound perfect before you're allowed to speak.
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You don't.
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You can pause.
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You can think out loud.
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You can start with, my first reaction is, one thing that stood out to me was, I haven't fully fought it through yet, but those little phrases give your brain somewhere to begin,
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and once you begin, the rest is usually much easier.
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So now, whenever someone in a meeting suddenly looks at me and asks, any thoughts, I still feel that tiny moment of panic, but I don't automatically say,
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no, looks good, not anymore.
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Because sometimes I really do have something to say, I just need a few seconds to find it.
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If you enjoy learning the English people actually use in real meetings, real offices, and everyday life, subscribe to Fluent Trail English.
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We'll keep learning it through stories like this.
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See you in the next story!
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 195 sentences and 1450 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:11. The speaker talks at a natural 177 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| timeline noun | /ˈtaɪmˌlaɪn/ | A graphical representation of a chronological sequence of events (past or future). |
| slide noun | /ˈslaɪ̯d/ | An item of play equipment that children can climb up and then slide down again. |
| nod verb | /nɑd/ | To incline the head up and down, as to indicate agreement. |
| panic noun | /ˈpænɪk/ | Overwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare. |
| deadline noun | /ˈdɛdˌlaɪn/ | A time limit in the form of a date on or before which something must be completed. |
| notebook noun | /ˈnoʊtˌbʊk/ | A book (physical or digital) in which notes or memoranda are written. |
| confused adjective | /kənˈfjuːzd/ | unable to think clearly or understand |
| everyday adjective | /ˈɛvɹiˌdeɪ/ | Appropriate for ordinary use, rather than for special occasions. |
| package noun | /ˈpæk.ɪd͡ʒ/ | Something which is packed, a parcel, a box, an envelope. |
| desk noun | /dɛsk/ | A table, frame, or case, in past centuries usually with a sloping top but now usually with a flat top, for the use of writers and readers. It often has a… |
| worker noun | /ˈwɝ.kɚ/ | One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor. |
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| thirty noun | /ˈθɝti/ | A commercial lasting 30 seconds. |
| aggressive adjective | /əˈɡɹɛs.ɪv/ | Characterized by aggression; highly combative; prone to behave in a way that involves attacking (especially if unjustly) or arguing. |
| feedback noun | /ˈfiːdˌbæk/ | Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| follow up verb | To take further actions remaining after an event; to continue, revisit, or persist; especially, to maintain communication or verify. | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| look around verb | To inspect a building or area. | |
| pull over verb | To come to a stop, and turn off the road (i.e. onto the roadside or hard shoulder). | |
| pull up verb | /ˌpʊl ˈʌp/ | To lift upwards or vertically. |
| sit around verb | To spend time sitting idly, not doing anything important. | |
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. | |
| think out verb | To devise or solve by a process of thought. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 31 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, didn't, hadn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like timeline, slide, nod.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.